Chapter 50
The moment one went down, another rose up and took his place. It was chaos.
There was a vampire for every wolf and many more waiting in the wings. I took out as many as I could; aiming for the head every time, but the beasts were getting smart. They dodged as many as they could and had even gone as far as to return some of Malik's wayward arrows.The last one missed him by an inch and that was only because Kaio had been vigilant and had acted quickly enough in pulling him out of the way.
I had no doubt in my mind that it was only a matter of time before they decided to make their way up to our perch. I was already almost out of ammunition by the time the pain in my shoulder started up again. It had first began as an ever-present ache and had gradually graduated to something that could no longer be ignored.
I pressed my hand lightly against my skin and tried to massage around the area. My fingers came away bloody. With obvious effort, I pulled off my shirt and tore down the center, before tying it around the wound. Blondie was a damn fool for deciding that I go without a bandage anyway.
"You alright?"
I looked at him. "Fine."
He didn't look convinced, but he also didn't push it and I was grateful. I didn't need a mother hen worrying over me right then. "I'm out of arrows." He explained as he lowered himself onto the ground beside me. "They just keep coming."
"We have the advantage with the wolves on our side. That, and they're in unfamiliar territory, but you're right. Kandane really thought this one through."
"It's you he wants you know." he said ominously. "He wants Rien to suffer and the easiest way to do that is to get his hands on you."
My eyes narrowed. "I'm aware of that. Sounds like this is your subtle way of telling me to give myself up."
His eyes flashed to mine. "Don't be ridiculous Tony."
I chuckled despite myself. "You sound just like him, you know that?"
He frowned. "Like who?"
"Rien."
He frowned. "Don't insult me."
I laughed. "Giving myself up wouldn't solve anything. Kandane would get what he wants and there's no telling how the rest of this war will play out."
"What if we were to run?"
"Run." I tested out the word.
"It won't make you a coward. It's a smart move."
I shook my head. "Even if it is, I wouldn't get very far anyway." I placed a careful hand over my wound.
Malik's expression transformed into what I could only describe as unease.
I watched him for a moment. "Why are you here Malik?"
"I told you why." His voice betrayed his frustration. "You're my brother. I'm here because of you."
"Why do I get the feeling you're lying to me?"
"Why would I lie? What reason could I possibly have? Think about it Tony."
"Alright. You say we're related and that could very well be true, but that doesn't change the fact that you're hiding something and I want to know what it is."
He regarded me with a cool expression. "You know what your problem is?"
I fought hard not to roll my eyes. "No, but I'm sure you do."
"You've had such a fucked up life, that even the simple act of trusting someone is impossible for you." He stood then and turned his back to me.
"Trust has to be earned friend."
He glanced at me briefly. "Yeah and look where I am—risking my life in a war that has nothing to do with me, just so I can be with my brother. Hell, if that doesn't illicit some sense of trust from you then nothing will." With that he walked over to Kaio and I was finally left to my own machinations.
My shoulder ached, my chest ached. Every part of my body ached, and after that conversation with Malik, even my head had started to throb. I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths.
"He has suffered much on his journey to find you." I opened them again to see Kaio standing beside me. Malik was perched atop the ledge as far away from me as he could get as he surveyed the bloodshed below.
"Something just doesn't add up Kaio."
"You have shouldered much responsibility in you short life Tony, and with that burden you have learned to harden your heart against the world. You have taught yourself to distrust others and that is the only reason you sense deceit in Mal's actions.
"He is good, but I may very well be biased as a result of my affiliation with him so do not take my words to heart." He said. "but do not forget that Lord Riener has put his trust in him and he would not do so if he were not certain that Mal could be trusted."
"My instincts have never been wrong."
"They were wrong about me. You did not trust me when we first met and now we are friends."
I looked at him with raised brows. "And I was right not to trust you. You snapped my leg remember?"
"And you murdered me, yet here we are...friends. I only ask that you give him the opportunity to at least prove that he is worth your attention."
"I'm not stopping him. He can prove whatever he wants."
Kaio looked at me then, as though he were talking to an insolent child and I sighed. "Your attitude makes it impossible for anyone to feel comfortable in your presence, much less prove anything to you. Stop being a stubborn buffoon and give him the chance he deserves."
"Very well your majesty." I mocked. He chuckled and finally took a seat beside me.
"You are a difficult man Tony."
"Yeah well, the world isn't an easy place."
"Yes." He paused for a few minutes and we sat and listened to the chaos around us. "We are low on ammunition. We need to gather more from the armory, though at this point I wonder if this is all for naught."
"We have to do what we can."
"Yes, but you are injured, Malik is more afraid than I have ever seen him and it seems Lord Kandane has instilled the aid of a great many covens. It is true that he has had the opportunity to liaison with many coven leaders in the years he has spent by his father's side, so it is unsurprising that he has gained many supporters in that time, but I did not think so great a number would be brave enough to stand against us.The warrior coven has always been feared my all."
"About how many covens would you say we're dealing with here?"
"Three by my estimation, perhaps four. It is a large number. We are truly fortunate that this wolf pack is so great in number or I fear we would have been decimated long ago."
I nodded, looking over the ledge at the scene below. "I've seen a lot of bloodshed in my lifetime Kaio, but this...this is on a whole other level."
Kaio shrugged. "You are accustomed to butchery through the use of your manmade weaponry, while we believe that a warrior's true strength can only be exemplified through the use of his flesh." He explained. "Why use weapons when we can tear a man's heart out with hands we have? It is this demonstration that I believe truly troubles you and not merely the lives being lost."
The truth was; all of it sickened me. It was senseless and barbaric what Rien's brother was doing, but then every war was senseless.
"We are not barbarians." Kaio spoke again and I raised a brow in question.
"Did I say you were?"
He smiled.
"Tell me a little about him."
"What would you like to know?"
"I've never spoken to him before. In fact, I don't think I've ever been within an arm's reach of the guy. The only thing I know about him is that he hates humans with a passion and now he's hell-bent on destroying his own family."
Kyle's reply was a long time coming, but when he did speak, his words surprised me. "He is not as bad as many believe him to be."
I laughed.
"I speak only the truth Tony. Many see him as a cold, uncaring being with his sights set only on the throne, but that is not the case. In moments when he is not being corrupted by his father's influence, he is kind. Even to the drudges. Of course he is ever serious; never one to show weakness, but I have seen the weakness in him and its unlikely source."
"The source of his weakness." I played with the words. "What do you mean? If you know his weakness then why aren't you using it to end this..."I gestured to the carnage. "...this disaster?"
Another smile, but this one was a sad one. "His brother's know of it and so do I, but it is not a weakness any of us would choose to exploit, for it is the only thing that keeps him grounded. The only thing that separates him from the barbarian he could become under his father's watchful gaze."
I frowned. "Are you going to tell me what this 'weakness' is or are we going to continue to talk in riddles?"
"You have never been patient."
And so I remained silent and 'patiently' waited for his answer.
"Is it not obvious what it is?" he asked, then sighed. "Perhaps it is not where Lord Kandane is concerned, for he is always so calm, so collected. No one would be able to see it. He is in love Tony and that is his weakness."
It took me a moment to process his words, but the Kandane I had seen from afar and all I'd heard about him could not be reconciled with a man in love. "In love...as in, with a person?"
"Not just any person. Lord Kandane has done the unthinkable. He has done the very thing he has been preaching against for as long as I have known him. He has fallen in love with a human."
I had him repeat it just so I could be sure I'd heard him right. "Wow." I laughed. "The bastard went and fell for some human. What a hypocrite. How do you even know all this?"
"It was Lord Riener who learned of it first only two years prior. He kept it to himself of course, as he tends to do with important news such as this. His brothers learned not long after seemingly by accident. He still has no idea that anyone knows his secret. Love tends to make one careless...even one such as Lord Kandane." Kaio glanced at Malik, who was busy in his corner, picking at his bow and looking as miserable as ever.
"Well clearly love didn't do enough for the bastard. Look where we are now."
"What he is doing is cruel I will admit, but I cannot cast blame. What his father did was far crueler than anything he could. For centuries he has dangled the throne in Lord Kandane's face. In fact, it was our leader who first infected him with the knowledge that he might one day rule. He did not always pine for the throne you see, but his father convinced him of its importance and has prepared him to take over for many a year...or so it had seemed.
"Lord Kandane has done much for his father simply because he asked it. He has gone above and beyond for him and has borne his wrath so that his brothers did not have to. He had an idea of power that he had not wanted, thrust upon him and when he finally began to accept it and grow to see himself in the position of leader, his father pulled it right out from under him.
"Everything he has done, all the time he has lost in pursuit of his father's will, all he has had to give up and now to learn it had been for nothing. It would make any man crazed." Kaio explained. "Lord Riener and his brothers have not truly grasped his pain, and I do not know if ever they will, but I can see it and I understand it...even if I do not agree with his actions."
"How could they? The guy makes it impossible. Look what he's doing Kaio. He's trying to kill his own brothers. That's a line you don't cross, no matter how pissed off you are."
"That is where you are wrong." He said. "As a drudge you tend to see a lot and hear a lot. In my position observation is just about all I have the time for, and I have seen much Tony. I have learned much and the most important thing I have come to understand is that Lord Kandane would never truly harm his brothers.
"He has protected them in more ways than they will ever know and he has cared for them and sacrificed more for them than they will ever do in their own lifetimes. If they only knew the things I have seen, then they would have tried to understand him more. They would respect him more and they would cherish him above all others, for he has suffered much to keep them as they are."
"Then why don't you tell them what you know?"
"It is not my place." He said simply.
"Rien doesn't think he's fit to lead. None of them do. What do you think? Do you think he'd make a good leader if he ever got the chance?"
Kaio looked up and smiled at the stars. "They are his blood, but they do not know him; misguided as they are. If Lord Kandane were to take the throne, he would be a magnificent leader. It is only unfortunate that now that will never come to pass."
I shook my head. It was strange to think of the guy that way. It was even stranger to feel the tinge of sympathy that I did for him and I said same to Kaio.
"Yes well, I believe that it is Lord Kandane's human that has suffered the most in all this. Having to live as a secret and love in secret. Having a lover who was taught to hate all that humans stand for. Having been kept at an arm's length for all these years because of his lover's obligations to his father."
"I guess that would be a shitty way to live. Who is this guy anyway?"
Kaio looked at me in amusement. "Why Tony, don't you know?" he said. "Have you not yet figured it out?"
I frowned as he stood and he smiled; one that went all the way to his eyes this time, and I wondered how he could even muster a pleasant expression at a time like this. "I believe we have tarried long enough. I shall visit upon the armory and gather the ammunition we need."
I shook my head as he crossed the space. The cryptic bastard.
He paused by the door that would lead him off the roof and turned to look at me. "Mend the fence." He said gesturing to Malik and then he was gone; leaving me with the silent guards and Malik for company.
.............................................
I watched as he picked at his bow, drummed his fingers along the shaft and looked out over the courtyard; flinching only when something particularly gruesome had been done in his line of sight. The silence on the roof was thick with tension and the guards who watched us without a word didn't help the situation much.
I shook my head. Only Kaio could make a grown man feel like the biggest dick in the dirt. I stood—fully aware of my growing aches and pains— and closed the distance between us. He looked up at my approach, but looked away again without even registering my presence when I stood not too far away from him. We watched the scene below in silence. Silence that I would have allowed to stretch on if Kaio's voice hadn't still been reverberating in my mind.
"I'm a dick." I said into the silence and I could feel his stare, though I refused to look at him; instead focusing my attention on the scene below. "Rien would tell you I was born this way and I'd say he's probably right."
"No you certainly weren't born that way...I would know." He said after a moment and I shrugged.
"Kaio wants me to make amends." I continued, and this time I did look at him. His eyes met mine.
"That's no reason to do something you don't want to do."
I nodded. "I've never been into birthdays." I began. "Never cared for them. It's always been just another day for me, but Rien has always wanted me to enjoy my human experiences to the fullest. So on this one birthday, he made me get all dressed up in this fancy suit that itched every time I moved and shoes that were so polished I swear I could almost see my reflection in them, and he took me out to this fancy restaurant that he liked." I smiled at the memory.
"Anyway so as expected, I hated it. People were staring and the music was boring and everything was so expensive that I felt like I couldn't touch anything without accidentally breaking it. Looking back, I guess it was supposed to be a perfect night. Especially since at the time we were also celebrating the anniversary of our first meeting, but I couldn't care less and he knew it.
"Like I said, I've always been a dick. So anyway, on this perfect night, he wanted me to make a wish. He said I could wish for anything I wanted. Anything in the world, no matter how ridiculous it sounded." I glanced at him again. "Do you know what I wished for?"
He shook his head.
"I wished for a brother. Even though I knew it would never happen and I understood that no one could make it come true, I'd wanted a brother who I could teach all my tricks and I'd make him join my crew and teach him the way of the world." I said. "Back then I'd been wishing for one since I was old enough to understand what a brother was.
"So you can imagine my disbelief when some guy shows up out of the blue, claiming to be my long lost sibling.
"Tony—" he interrupted, but I shook my head.
"I had one good thing growing up Malik. Just one thing that I could look at that made me feel that maybe I wasn't that useless piece of shit my foster parents seemed to think I was. I had just one flimsy little picture of my parents. In the picture they were pushing me on a swing. So I used to imagine that we'd been at a park that day, or in our back yard or some other happy place. And I figured that if they could smile that much, it must have meant that they loved me and if they loved me...if someone could love me then it meant I wasn't so useless after all.
That was the one thing I had, and now some guy is coming to tell me that not only is he my long lost brother, but claiming that I'd been kidnapped from my home in some foreign country and sold...sold to those happy people in the one picture I had that made me feel like I was worth something.
"Now you understand that by coming here and saying all these things, you're hacking away the one good thing I had growing up. The one happy memory that I've held on to while being passed through foster home after foster home, but what do I know, there's every possibility that what you're saying is true and you're here for my sake.
"There's also every possibility that what you say is true, but you're here with bad intentions. And of course there's the possibility that everything you've told me is a lie and you're here because you want something." His watched me without a word. "Now with all these possibilities, you should at least realize that 'you sticking around in a war that has nothing to do with you, just so you can be with your brother' is no reason for me to trust you.
"Trust isn't something that you hand to every beggar, thief and saint you come across. So when I say you need to earn it, I'm not being a jackass. I'm not being my usual dick self and I'm not being an asshole. I'm being real with you. Do you understand?"
It took him a moment to reply as he watched me; his brows furrowed as he considered my words, and finally, he nodded and I returned the gesture.
"I suppose a blood test would be the place to start in earning your trust then."
I nodded. "It would definitely be a start."
"Then I'm— Holy shit, is that...is that him?"
I followed Malik's gaze and froze when I saw him. He was like a perfectly carved statue cemented to the ledge of the building across from our perch. He stood with his feet slightly apart, his midnight black robes draped around him and his dark hair framing his perfectly sculpted face.
A face that was as emotionless as a rock, but far far more brutal. The glimpses I had seen of him over the weeks that I'd been held prisoner behind the coven walls didn't coincide with what I saw now. I had always seen him as this silent and serious presence, with a calculating and disapproving gaze.
However, the creature I was looking at now had developed another dimension in all the time I'd been absent. The creature I saw now had the eyes of the night; focused and watchful as he targeted his prey. There was something about him; standing there as still as a sculpture and exuding a presence I couldn't even begin to describe.
I was vaguely aware of Malik shouting something at me and then of a weapon being forced into my hand.
I tore my gaze away from the enemy and glanced down at it.
"What are you waiting for? Shoot him!" Malik hissed. I saw the urgency in his expression, but the weapon that held my last deadly bullet felt heavy in my hand. The creature standing not too far from us wouldn't go down with this bullet. The realization hit me the moment my gaze travelled back to his still form.
This was death on a mission and I had a feeling nothing would stop him, but I raised the weapon anyway and I aimed it at his head. I could pull the trigger and watch him bleed, or I could pull the trigger and watch him tear us apart. I knew without a doubt that it would be the latter.
I lowered the gun, and beside me Malik let out a string of curses.
Why had I not seen it in him before? I'd watched him standing by his father's side. I'd watched him sitting in the vampire's Court. I had studied him just as I had studied all the brothers in the brief time I had seen them, but somehow I'd missed this. This important element to him that I couldn't describe; that I couldn't explain.
He had hid it well.
I followed his gaze; needing to know just what he was watching with such intensity in the courtyard below. I needed to understand just which aspect of his war had captured so much of his attention, and when I spotted the source, comprehension dawned.
Noah. Noah was his weakness.
It was then that the creature moved for the first time. As though he had heard the name in my mind and he wanted retribution for the offence. In a heartbeat, he turned and his eyes met mine. I couldn't explain what I saw in them. This time when I raised the weapon, my hand shook.
I blinked and he was gone.
"Holy Fuck." Malik breathed. "That's what we're up against?"
Before I could do so much as nod, I heard something hard hit the ground. I spun around and came face to face with him. Kandane. The two guards lay unconscious at his feet. Malik took a step back, but I remained grounded, watching his approach; eyes locked on his.
He moved slowly; as if he had all the time in the world, and I held my ground still as he neared me. When he finally came to a stop directly before me, his hand shot out and he gripped my chin. I clawed at his hand; trying desperately to get him to release me, but his grip was firm as he tilted my head up so that I could look nowhere but in his dead eyes.
I glared.
"You are bold and spirited." He said simply. His voice was deeper than I'd expected and as smooth as velvet. "I can see now why he is so fond of you." He finished, and I got the distinct impression that he wasn't talking about Rien.
His gaze travelled to my bandaged shoulder and settled there. I imagined all the torturous things he could do then and mentally prepared myself for it, but his next words surprised me.
"You should be resting, not running around playing the hero. Humans are such foolish creatures." Then he released me and as he did, I felt the gentle scraping of his nails across my cheek. A strange tingling sensation erupted along my cheek and down my neck. I felt it settle in the pit of my stomach and in the tips of my fingers and toes and suddenly, I felt a strange numbness settle over me and I couldn't move.
I stared at him in shock and then panic as I realized I was paralyzed. Then I felt myself falling. Somewhere close by, Malik shouted my name. I could only watch Kandane as I went down. I couldn't brace myself and I couldn't put a hand out to break my fall. I fought to close my eyes; to say something; anything, but it was like my own body was against me. I felt it when he grabbed me and lowered me slowly and carefully to the ground. Then he stood crouched over me and watching with those deadly eyes.
I tried to swing away from him; anything at all to prove I wasn't at his mercy, but whatever he'd done to me was still in force and there was nothing I could do. My panic grew and intensified and I watched in horror as he placed a hand over my heart. I was sure he'd been about to rip the organ out of my chest, but instead, he said; "Relax. This will soon pass."
I watched him as he stood and faced the courtyard again. His eyes were glued somewhere down below. He placed his hands on the ledge in front of him and the concrete crumbled partially under them.
I heard Malik beside me and a moment later I felt him grip my hand, but I couldn't even move my head to see him. The only sight I was allowed was the demon standing not far away. He was calm, but I could practically feel his anger bubbling below the surface. The way Rien had described him had been inaccurate. This wasn't a spoiled child pissed off because his father had denied him power. No. This was a man who already had power. It was in the way he held himself. It was in his every step. It was in his dead eyes. This was a man who knew what it took to break a person and how to do it right.
They had underestimated him. I could see it now. Next to him, the man I loved didn't have half the experience and wisdom that I had seen in Kandane's eyes. He had been alive for centuries before Rien's conception had even been a thought in his parents' mind, and I could see now that he hadn't wasted all those years.
I heard another sound somewhere off to the side; like the scraping of a door against the floor and I knew someone had arrived. Kandane turned around; his gaze set on something I couldn't see.
"I have been waiting for you." He said, and I heard Malik's breath hitch.
AUTHOR'S NOTES
THANKS FOR READING!
-DoUbLe.A
-unedited.